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Progress on identifying connected car use-cases said to show the utility of MEC in Nokia’s Spanish 5G playground.

Operators and auto industry troubled by risk of short-termism in new European laws on vehicle connectivity.

Samsung also uses Segovia to get latest handsets in the spotlight.

In July 2018, Telefónica Group and car manufacturer SEAT tested two assisted driving use-cases in Segovia within the framework of the operator’s 5G Technological Cities project, which it launched in January 2018 (Telefónicawatch, #123).

Following through with commitments made between the carmaker and operator towards the end of 2017 (Telefónicawatch, #122), a SEAT Ateca car and a set of traffic lights at a junction in the city were equipped with the means to exchange information, in a first step towards using the Cellular Vehicle 2 Everything (C-V2X) communications technology on an ordinary mobile network in a real city setting.

As part of its role in the research efforts underway in Segovia, Nokia implemented a Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) server to act as a communication platform between the vehicle and infrastructure to ensure the low latency of the communications via what Nokia calls ‘4.9G’ LTE mobile infrastructure in a ‘pre-5G’ mode (Telefónicawatch, #111, #119, and #124).

The Ateca was modified to issue alerts to the driver through the instrument panel. FICOSA manufactured the C-V2X device in the car, while SICE, owner of the road infrastructure, connected up the traffic lights.

The two use-cases for assisted driving were:

The car receiving an alert from the traffic light when a pedestrian was walking across the junction, around a blind right-hand corner.

An alert from the traffic light to the car for when it was about to turn red. According to its location, speed, and course, the vehicle decided whether it had enough time to cross the intersection. If not, an alert was displayed on the instrument panel so the driver could come to a controlled halt.

According to Mercedes Fernandez, Innovation Technology Manager at Telefónica, the tests showed the potential of combining the C-V2X technology with information from additional sensors (such as on a traffic light) to produce a fuller picture of activities surrounding the vehicle via the mobile network, to improve road safety “without the need for specific implementations… as the network develops and latencies diminish, use-cases will advance towards cooperative as well as autonomous driving”.

Alvaro Sanchez, Nokia’s Account Director for Telefónica in Spain, noted, “Multi-access Edge Computing is a key element of the 5G architecture, providing processing resources close to where they are needed, and thereby enabling near real-time responsiveness of applications”.

The 5G Technological Cities project, launched by Telefónica in January 2018, plans to trial technological implementation and use-cases to highlight 5G’s capabilities in the cities of Talavera de la Reina and Segovia, with vendor partners Ericsson and Nokia, respectively.

Gigabit mobile data grabs headlines for Nokia and Samsung

Telefónica also unveiled a more tactile example of the potential of its network innovation project in Segovia, with a virtual reality demonstration supported by Nokia and Samsung.

The Tapas en… immersive experience combines the opportunity to try food in real life, while using a virtual reality headset that offers a 360˚ backdrop of a different location related to the food’s place of origin. The demonstration (largely a novelty, although the telco and partners attempted to pin it on the growing reliance on technology in the tourism trade) is intended to showcase and promote the idea of Nokia’s 4.9G technology, alongside Samsung’s devices.

The handset maker secured considerable publicity for its S9 premium phone, which is said to be the only device on the market that is capable of making full use of the up-to-1Gbps connection speeds that Nokia’s network deployment can offer in Segovia.

Despite progress, operators have qualms on EU connected car plans

Telefónica Group is reportedly among a group of signatories to a letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker outlining concerns regarding upcoming legislation intended to create a framework for the introduction of connected car services in Europe.

The 15 companies that signed the letter are concerned that the language used in the proposed laws may favour a short-range Wi-Fi solution that precludes the adoption of emerging standards expected to enable 5G-enabled services.

“Despite the European Commission’s stated commitment to technology neutrality, we are very concerned about the progressing Delegated Act. At the current time, it rules out the most recent technology, Cellular-V2X (C-V2X), favouring a specific and single-purpose Wi-Fi-based technology path (known as ITS-G5), thus precluding the evolution to 5G for connected cars.” – Extract from the Juncker letter.

As well as fellow operators Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone, technology vendors Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm, and Samsung were among the signatories, as were carmakers BMW, Daimler, and Ford.

Telefónica is involved in several connected car initiatives with the other companies lobbying the Commission, for example through the 5G Automotive Association, and the Ericsson-led 5G Connected Mobility consortium (Telefónicawatch, #112, #117, and passim).

Image: Telefónica

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